I've been slowly working my way through The Weird: A compendium of strange and dark stories, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (himself famous as the author of Annihilation, the basis of the recent bizarre movie. ) The book is a historical anthology of weird fiction, including the usual suspects like Lovecraft, Blackwood, Leiber, and M.R. James. However, the Vandermeer's included stories from much more literary figures like Kafka, Saki, Borges, Chabon, and Joyce Carol Oates. There are also some pieces by non-western authors from Asia and Africa which make for delightful discoveries. The only problem (if you can call it that) is that it's huge--over 1100 double-columned pages, and is a large format tome (7" x 9"), so it's a little unwieldy to read casually. Robert Aickman's "The Hospice" was a particularly creepy revelation, but realistically, there hasn't been a bad tale in the bunch.

I finished reading Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch. It's a wonderous and strange novel about a teenage Nigerian (Igbo) girl who discovers that she is part of a community of magic users called Leopard People, and follows her as she enters their world. I loved Okorafor's Binti books, and this one continues her brilliant drawing on West African folklore and culture to build an imaginative and engaging fantasy novel.